Sharkey trial: Judge condemns community failures

Robert Jennings, left, and Scott Snowden have been found guilty of murder. Picture: PA

GARETH ROSE

21:42Thursday 25 July 2013

A JUDGE has condemned members of a community who failed to prevent the “unspeakably callous and cowardly murders” of a father and his two children, as he jailed their killers for life.

Scott Snowden, 38, will serve at least 33 years in prison, while his henchman Robert Jennings, 50, faces a minimum of 29.

Bridget Sharkey with 21-year-old brother Thomas, who both died in a blaze at their family home along with their father. Picture: PA

Snowden ordered Jennings to start a fire which killed Thomas Sharkey jnr, 21, and his sister Bridget, eight, in their home.

Their father Thomas Sharkey snr, 55, died six days later in hospital.

Angela Sharkey, 47, was rescued from the blaze and awoke more than two weeks later in a hospital bed to learn she had been left widowed and childless.

Snowden and Jennings were convicted on Wednesday - exactly two years after the deaths - following an 11-week trial at the High Court, in Glasgow.

Sentencing the pair today, Judge Lord Matthews said: “You have been convicted of what is without doubt the most appalling crime I’ve ever been involved with in my professional career.”

They had waged a campaign of “violence, revenge, intimidation and cowardice”, he added.

And addressing people who had shielded the pair prior to the fire in the Argyll and Bute town, the judge said: “Those who failed to speak up at an earlier stage, when they could perhaps have nipped all this in the bud before the events of 24 July, 2011, bear a heavy burden of responsibility.”

Following sentencing, John Dunn, Procurator Fiscal for the West of Scotland, said: “Snowden and Jennings’ campaign of vengeance and violence culminated with the unspeakably callous and cowardly murders of three of the Sharkey family.

“Angela Sharkey almost died in the fire which killed her husband, her son and her eight-year-old daughter.

“Their conviction and sentence today now brings them to justice. We hope that their victims, and the wider community in Helensburgh, can start to rebuild their lives.”

Police Scotland plans to review investigations into the pair carried out before the deaths, on 24 July, 2011, to see if they could have been prevented.

Snowden was a drug dealer who had a “hatred” of Mr Sharkey snr after he “intervened in connection with a debt”. Jennings was Snowden’s henchman who exacted revenge on people who annoyed him.

The two men had carried out a “campaign of violence” in Helensburgh, the court had heard over the course of the trial.

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